Monika Wührer
ARTIST STATEMENT
Many years of working within my nyc community to create an ecosystem in an empty lot, where one could survive without pollution or waste, not connected to the electrical grid and the sewage system, evolved into the project Nature's Calling. Using all reclaimed materials, I build composting toilets and install them in publicly accessible locations.
These composting or dry toilets have been placed in 5 locations so far, and the project is ongoing. They not only provide a way for people to relieve themselves, but educate people about the advantages of dry toilets, and offer a platform for people to voice their concerns about life, disease, and community by writing on the walls within the small intimate space.
While this project has been in the back of my mind for years, it has become particularly relevant since the onset of the pandemic for three reasons. 1) Here in NYC, Whenever it rains more than a ¼ inch, sewage overflows into waterways like the Gowanus canal and heads out to the harbor. All of our shit goes into the ocean every time it rains. Literally. Composting kills 99% of diseases. 2) Many people are experiencing homelessness and need access to toilets. During the recent Black Lives Matter protests, the lack of public toilets became quite evident. The dry toilets will be a place to go that is relatively safe and secure. 3) Our anxiety and stress levels are very high right now. Inviting visitors to write graffiti on the toilet walls, provides a space where people can express themselves and let off steam.
The toilets were built with the help of young New Yorkers Jolene Lower, Wally, and Ty.
ABOUT THIS PAGE
This webpage provides both images and description to render a virtual experience of each artist’s work. Below is an image gallery that includes installation shots and details of Monika Wührer’s installation. In-depth written descriptions of the work, which provide visual, contextual, and other sensory information, are below the image gallery. Audio recordings of this material are available through the SoundCloud embedded above.
IMAGE GALLERY & DESCRIPTIONS
INSTALLATION
Nature’s Calling, by Monika Wührer is a working outhouse, which stands in the central room of the gallery slightly towards the wall of windows. The door is open towards the front entrance of the gallery so that the toilet inside is visible when a visitor first enters. On the wall slightly behind the work and across from the windows, a white particle board is mounted, holding ephemera from the project.
Nature’s Calling, 2020, reclaimed materials (wood), metal, plastic, markers, toilet paper, sawdust, 8' tall, 55" x 35".
A wood structure painted gray on the outside and white on the inside features an open door. On the inside, a wooden step, also painted gray, leads up to a platform, affixed to a toilet seat. Painted on the wall behind the toilet, spray painted text in all caps reads in red: “Scoop Litter” and in black: “Sit Down.” On the platform itself, text written in marker reads “Pee Here (Plastic) with an arrow pointing toward the front of the toilet seat and another that reads: “Poop Here (bucket)” with an arrow pointing toward the back of the toilet seat. On one wall adjacent to the toilet, a toilet paper roll hangs from a tied piece of rope; on the other there is a blank white wall with several permanent markers in different colors and a bottle of hand sanitizer setting on a tiny wooden platform.
The walls of the toilet are blank but can be written on over the course of the exhibition and might read: “XYZ WAS HERE; A&B 4-EVA; FUCK TRUMP; Send funds to my Venmo @; CANCEL RENT NOW; WASH YOUR HANDS; ROSES REALLY SMELL LIKE POO POO POO; ACAB FTP BLM” and some of which have said in the past: “I will not let people hold me down; I will come out of this dark cloud that is holding me down; This too shall pass! Today I’m going to come out of this bad life; Lee hearts Bo 4 ever Oct 7 2020; WOW!” On the door of the toilet, three more permanent markers hang. There’s also a metal lock and a wooden block that ostensibly can be turned to keep the door shut when it is closed.
On one of the outer walls of the structure there are two texts printed and screwed to the wall under a sheet of plastic. There’s one with English text and one with a Spanish translation of the same text. The sign in English reads: Welcome to a dry toilet. Feel free to use it. AND If you follow instructions, it won’t smell. In a black box, white text appears: 1) Peeing AND pooping. You have to sit down. 2) Behind the toilet seat you find a shovel and sawdust. Take a scoop and cover the poop -- Just let the pee be! 3) Use the sanitizer to wash your hands 4) Feel free to write on the walls. What’s on your mind? Next to the black box, the following text appears: “FACTS ABOUT DRY TOILETS: Using water is not always a good thing. In the case of poop it creates a ton of problems. Diseases (like the Corona virus) spread much faster when we use water for sewage disposal). In NYC, every time it rains ¼ inch, sewage overflows into our waterways. By using compost toilets, our waste eventually becomes a fertilizer which can be part of the ecosystem again. 99% of all “Disease creators'' are killed in the composting process by tiny organisms with no harm to the environment! If you are thinking that it’s gross that your shit will hang out on a composting pile, then think about how gross it is to have it go into the ocean where we swim! Instead, It will relax in a pile covered in straw for a year. It won’t smell one little bit and will not attract rats or raccoons or other animals-- only microorganisms who will work hard transforming it.” On the back wall of the structure, there is a wooden flap, which when it pulls up reveals a small waste bin inside.
A little further into the gallery, there is a white particle board with holes, like you might see in a workshop, holding papers, photographs, a hammer, a saw, duct tape, a screwdriver and other ephemera. One of the papers shows plans for making your own dry toilet; another shows a diagram for how to make an ADA accessible toilet. The photographs depict various toilets installed in locations around the city, interiors of the toilet showing writings on the walls and an image of a toilet overlaid on top of a picture of a person. As part of the work, there is also a Google map featuring the locations of the dry toilets that have been installed around the city. Because the toilets are frequently removed, the map allows users to track the ones that are still usable. The pictures featured on each location show images of the toilets in situ or people installing them. One of these toilets is painted bright pink with the word “toilet” graffitied in bubbly turquoise letters; which a cartoon of a person pees on with bubblegum-pink pee. The locations are clustered mostly in Brooklyn around Prospect Park and in Hell’s Kitchen, with one in lower Manhattan. The one located outside nearest EFA is installed on 10th Ave. and W. 39th St., near a bright yellow storage facility, alongside a graffitied brick wall. As you walk there, you might notice various businesses devoted to infrastructural maintenance, such as stables for the horses that are used to give carriage rides in Central Park and many autobody shops. There are also frequently furniture and belongings as well as makeshift tents used by Unhoused people, on the walk leading to the toilet. As of this writing, this toilet has not yet been removed and is highly trafficked.
ARTIST BIO
Monika Wührer is the founder and executive director of Open Source Gallery and KoKo NYC. Originally from Austria, she received her MFA in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Monika founded Open Source Gallery in 2007. She has given talks at NURTUREart, Rutgers University and Hunter College. She has received awards and grants from the Austrian Cultural Forum, Austrian Federal Chancellery, Puffin Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. Monika has exhibited in the US, Norway, Austria, Italy, Thailand, Finland, France, Switzerland, and Japan.